As Pope Francis comes to U.S., he first visits Cuba, a country with a relatively poor record on religious freedom. But outside of Cuba, how do countries fare where Catholics are the majority population? The Economist states that the Holy See stubbornly defends religious freedom. In fact, religious freedom was formally spelled out as a Catholic doctrine when Pope Paul VI promulgated the declaration on religious freedom, Dignitatis Humanae, in 1965.*

An analysis of data from Pew Research studies finds that government restrictions on religious freedom and social hostilities involving religion are more than two times lower in countries where Catholics are the majority population than in countries where Catholics are a minority (see charts below and click here for more details on countries and regions).

Whether Catholic doctrine plays a role in this, however, is not possible to assess from the data. Indeed, the Pew Forum studies do not attempt to analyze the many factors - historical, demographic, cultural, religious, economic and political - that might explain the level of religious restrictions or hostilities in a country. The studies seek simply to measure the restrictions and hostilities that exist in a quantifiable, transparent and reproducible way, based on reports from numerous governmental and nongovernmental organizations.

As the possibility of U.S. military intervention in Syria mounts in response to the alleged use of chemical weapons by the regime of Basheer Assad, Pope Francis calls for prayer and fasting for peace. Pope Francis encouraged people to gather on Sept. 7 from 7 PM until midnight in St Peter’s Square, and also invited non-Catholics to participate in ways they feel are appropriate, according to Vatican Radio.

Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama laid out the case for limited military action against Syrian regime targets as a result of their alleged use of chemical weapons that killed over one thousand people - including hundreds of children. Syrian authorities deny their involvement and, in a BBC interview, said that any US military action against Syria would amount to "support for al-Qaeda and its affiliates."

As the tensions continue to mount in the two-year civil war that began during the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, here are three things to know about religion and religious freedom in Syria from recent Pew Research studies.

1. Syria is more religiously diverse than you might think

Shia Muslims account for 15-20% of Muslims

Syria's 2010 population was slightly more than 20 million, with Muslims accounting for 93% (19 million), Christians 5% (1 million) and the religiously unaffiliated 2% (.4 million), according to Pew Research estimates.

While Syria's population is largely Muslim, Sunni and Shia Muslim communities contribute to its diversity. By comparison, Egypt is less diverse because its Muslim population is almost entirely Sunni, while Christians make up a similar share according to Pew Research estimates. (See more about Egypt.)

Sunni Muslims in Syria number between 15-16 million, while Shia Muslims, mostly belonging to the Alawite sect, number between 3-4 million. Although the Alawites are a numerical minority, they control many of the mechanisms of power within the country. According to the U.S. State Department, for instance, the "Alawi sect, of which President Assad and his family are members, continued to hold an elevated political status disproportionate to its numbers, including in the military and other security services."

Among Christians, approximately 590,000 are Orthodox, 430,000 are Catholic and 40,000 belong to various Protestant denominations. Syria is famous in Christian history for being the location of St. Paul's conversion in Aleppo.

2. The Syrian civil war has increasingly fallen along sectarian lines, threatening Majorities and Minorities alike

A June 2013 Pew Research report noted that the ongoing civil war in Syria, which began as a protest against the regime of President Assad, now falls largely along sectarian lines. There are also some indications that the sectarian dimensions of the conflict have spilled across borders. For instance, Hezbollah - a Shia Muslim group designated as a terrorist organization by several governments - reportedly crossed into Syria from Lebanon to join the ongoing civil war on the side of the regime led by President Assad. The coalition of rebel forces seeking to topple the regime, however, is largely Sunni Muslim.

Smaller religious minorities are also caught up in the Syrian conflict. For instance, in April two Orthodox Christian bishops were kidnapped by gunmen in Aleppo, Syria. They are still being held. And, as noted by the Wall Street Journal, ancient Catholic and Orthodox communities are finding themselves on the wrong side of an increasingly sectarian conflict, threatening their very survival. Indeed, reports indicate that the uncertain future of Syrian Christians is one shared by many historic Christian communities across the Middle East.

3. Syria has among the world's highest government restrictions on religion

Syria has among the highest levels of government restrictions on religion, ranking 9th most restrictive worldwide, according to the most recent Pew Research report. Government restrictions in Syria included active use of force against religious groups; very high favoritism of Shia Islam above others; prohibitions on Muslims converting from Islam to other religions; and restrictions on religious literature or broadcasting.

In particular, the Syrian "government increased its targeting and surveillance of members of faith groups it deemed a threat, including members of the country’s Sunni majority," according to the U.S.State Department.

For a discussion on the association between social hostilities and government restrictions, see my TEDx Talk.

Last week, Pope Francis took the rare step of personally expressing his “esteem and friendship” to the world’s Muslims as they prepare to celebrate the end of the Ramadan fast this week. Usually that annual greeting is signed by the Vatican’s department for interfaith dialogue.

Pope Francis went on to say that “We have to bring up our young people to think and speak respectfully of other religions and their followers,” and he stressed the role that education plays and the need “to avoid ridiculing or denigrating their convictions and practices.”

He also emphasized that understanding is "built upon the foundation of mutual respect" and that 'mutual' means that "this is not a one-way process, but something shared by both sides."Here are ten basic things to know about Muslims - followers of Islam - gleaned from recent Pew Research reports. The first 5 are Muslim beliefs and practices; the second 5 are Muslim demographics and findings from recent studies of global restrictions on religion.

1. Most Muslims say they fast during Ramadan: A survey of more than 38,000 Muslims in 39 countries and territories found that a median of 93% say they fast during Ramadan. Fasting is the second-most observed of the Five Pillars, behind only belief in God and the Prophet Muhammad (median of 97%).

2. Muslims and the Internet: Around the world, Muslims who use the internet are much more likely than other Muslims to have a favorable opinion of Western movies, music and television and are somewhat more likely to see similarities between Islam and Christianity, according to an analysis of a recent Pew Research Center survey.

3. Muslims and Sharia Law: Overwhelming percentages of Muslims in many countries want Islamic law (sharia) to be the official law of the land, according to a worldwide survey by the Pew Research Center. But many supporters of sharia say it should apply only to their country’s Muslim population. Moreover, Muslims are not equally comfortable with all aspects of sharia: While most favor using religious law in family and property disputes, fewer support the application of severe punishments – such as whippings or cutting off hands – in criminal cases. The survey also shows that Muslims differ widely in how they interpret certain aspects of sharia, including whether divorce and family planning are morally acceptable.

4. Muslim Americans: No signs of growth in alienation or support for extremism. A comprehensive public opinion survey finds no indication of increased alienation or anger among Muslim Americans in response to concerns about home-grown Islamic terrorists, controversies about the building of mosques, and other pressures that have been brought to bear on this high-profile minority group in recent years. Muslims in the United States continue to reject extremism by much larger margins than most other Muslim publics, and a higher percentage views U.S. efforts to combat terrorism as sincere than did so in 2007. At the same time, majorities of Muslim Americans express concerns about Islamic extremism here and abroad – worries that coexist with the view that life in post-9/11 America is more difficult for U.S. Muslims.

5.Muslim networks and movements in Western Europe. Over the past two decades, the number of Muslims living in Western Europe has steadily grown, rising from less than 10 million in 1990 to approximately 17 million in 2010. The continuing growth in Europe’s Muslim population is raising a host of political and social questions. Tensions have arisen over such issues as the place of religion in European societies, the role of women, the obligations and rights of immigrants, and support for terrorism. These controversies are complicated by the ties that some European Muslims have to religious networks and movements outside of Europe. Fairly or unfairly, these groups are often accused of dissuading Muslims from integrating into European society and, in some cases, of supporting radicalism.

6. World’s Muslim population more widespread than you might think: There are an estimated 1.6 billion Muslims around the world, making Islam the world’s second-largest religious tradition after Christianity, according to the December 2012 Global Religious Landscape report from the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. Although many people, especially in the United States, may associate Islam with countries in the Middle East or North Africa, nearly two-thirds (62%) of Muslims live in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the Pew Research analysis. In fact, more Muslims live in India and Pakistan (344 million combined) than in the entire Middle East-North Africa region (317 million).

7. Growing but slowing. While the global Muslim population is expected to grow at a faster rate than the non-Muslim population, the Muslim population nevertheless is expected to grow at a slower pace in the next two decades than it did in the previous two decades. From 1990 to 2010, the global Muslim population increased at an average annual rate of 2.2%, compared with the projected rate of 1.5% for the period from 2010 to 2030. The slowing is largely because fertility rates have fallen in most Muslim-majority countries in recent decades. Yet they remain, on average, higher than in the rest of the developing world and considerably higher than in more-developed countries.

8. Sunni and Shia Muslims: Of the total Muslim population, 10-13% are Shia Muslims and 87-90% are Sunni Muslims. Most Shias (between 68% and 80%) live in just four countries: Iran, Pakistan, India and Iraq. Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims (also known as Shiites) comprise the two main sects within Islam. Sunni and Shia identities first formed around a dispute over leadership succession soon after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632 A.D. Over time, however, the political divide between the two groups broadened to include theological distinctions and differences in religious practices as well. While the two sects are similar in many ways, they differ over conceptions of religious authority and interpretation as well as the role of the Prophet Muhammad’s descendants, for example.

9. Arab Spring adds to global restrictions on religion. At the onset of the Arab Spring in late 2010 and early 2011, many world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, expressed hope that the political uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa would lead to greater freedoms for the people of the region, including fewer restrictions on religious beliefs and practices. But a new study by the Pew Research Center finds that the region’s already high overall level of restrictions on religion – whether resulting from government policies or from social hostilities – continued to increase in 2011. (Also see TEDx Talk by Brian Grim on these global findings.)

10. Muslims, like followers of other faiths, face harassment. In 2011, government or social harassment of Muslims was reported in 101 countries; the previous high in the five-year study was 96 countries in the first year of the study. Overall, across the five years of the study, religious groups were harassed in a total of 185 countries at one time or another. Adherents of the world’s two largest religious groups, Christians and Muslims – who together comprise more than half of the global population – were harassed in the largest number of countries, 145 and 129 respectively. Harassment of Christians, Muslims and Jews was highest in the Middle East-North Africa. Although this is a predominantly Muslim region, followers of Islam were harassed in an even higher percentage of countries in the region than were Jews or Christians, according to a separate Pew Research study.

Pope Francis will celebrate World Youth Day this week in one of the most religiously non-restrictive countries on the planet, according to a recent Pew Research study. It is a country also undergoing major religious shifts.

Low RestrictionsAmong the 25 most populous countries, only four have low government restrictions on religion, with Brazil having the lowest of all (see chart). Brazil has lower restrictions, in fact, than the United States, where restrictions have been rising.

Religious freedom, however, is highly valued in Brazil. For instance, when Brazilians were asked in a 2006 Pew Research survey whether it was important to live in a country where there is freedom of religion for religions other than their own, nearly the same percentage of people indicated that this was important (95%) as indicated that it was important to live in a country where they can practice their own religion freely (96%).

An expression of such support for religious freedom occurred this spring when the government of São Paulo - Brazil's commercial center and the western hemisphere's most populous city at 20 million - declared that henceforth May 25th will be "religious freedom day." This declaration coincided with a multi-faith religious freedom festival that drew nearly 30,000 participants, including the participation of the Catholic archdiocese, leading politicians and celebrities.

Low religious restrictions and support for religious freedom are notable in a country that is undergoing what is perhaps one of the most dynamic religious shifts in the world today.

Religious ShiftsSince the Portuguese colonized Brazil in the 16th century, it has been overwhelmingly Catholic. And today Brazil has more Roman Catholics than any other country in the world – an estimated 123 million. But a recent Pew Research analysis finds that the share of Brazil’s overall population that identifies as Catholic has been dropping steadily in recent decades, while the percentage of Brazilians who belong to Protestant churches has been rising. Indeed, much of the religious shift has been from Roman Catholicism to Pentecostal and Protestant denominations. For a historical overview of Pentecostalism in Brazil, see the Pew Research report Spirit and Power. Smaller but increasing shares of Brazilians also identify with other religions or with no religion at all.

The Pew Research analysis notes that from 2000 to 2010, both the absolute number and the percentage of Catholics declined; Brazil’s Catholic population fell slightly from 125 million in 2000 to 123 million a decade later, dropping from 74% to 65% of the country’s total population. The number of Brazilian Protestants (including Pentecostals), on the other hand, continued to grow in the most recent decade, rising from 26 million (15%) in 2000 to 42 million (22%) in 2010.

In addition, the number of Brazilians belonging to other religions – including Afro-Brazilian faiths such as Candomblé and Umbanda – has been climbing. In 2000, adherents of religions other than Catholicism and Protestantism numbered about 6 million (4% of Brazil’s population), and as of 2010, the group had grown to 10 million (5%). Finally, the number of Brazilians with no religious affiliation, including agnostics and atheists, numbered 12 million (7%) in 2000 and 15 million (8%) according to Brazil’s 2010 census.Given the level of religious switching in Brazil, it is particularly notable that a separate Pew Research study finds that there have been no reported incidents of hostility over conversions or proselytism.

A History of Religious DeregulationBrazil was not always known for religious tolerance. For instance, the persecution of Brazilian Jews in the 1600s sent the first group of Jews to New York in 1654. But writing in 1923, University of Texas legal expert Herman G. James noted that “It is safe to say that there is no other country in the world where the Roman Catholic faith is the traditional and prevailing faith of the inhabitants, where there is a more complete separation of Church and State, or where there is greater freedom of conscience and worship.”

As the twentieth century progressed, however, laws were passed making proselytizing more difficult for new religious groups and, in the 1940s, the government stopped issuing visas for Protestant missionaries. These limits were short lived. After a period of military rule that ended in 1985, politically active Protestant denominations and minority religions worked to ensure that religious freedom became a defining characteristic of church-state relations. For more details, see The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the 21st Century.

Brazil is among the 76% of countries recently identified in a recent Pew Research study with initiatives to lower religious restrictions and hostilities. For instance, on January 15, 2012, President Dilma Rousseff approved an agreement to include the Holocaust, anti-Semitism, and other Jewish-related subjects, as well as racism, xenophobia, and intolerance, in the curricula of some schools, universities and other educational institutions.

On April 19, one of the first major international events hosted at the Vatican under the new Pope Francis I is scheduled to be the TEDx Talk, "Religious Freedom Today." Get tickets.

On April 19, 2013, TEDx – the cutting-edge media-driven conference – is coming to the Vatican. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, will open the global meeting to discuss religious freedom in the world today.

Antonio Gaspari (ZENIT) describes the event: "It has been known as the ‘Oscars’ of Ideas, the genius of Hollywood. The Technology Entertainment Design conference, better known as TED, is a mix of science, communication and entertainment which follows its credo of ideas worth spreading. What started as an annual conference for people who wanted to share ideas has now become one of the most visited websites in the world. Now the famous conference is coming to the Vatican."Why this topic? Organizer Giovanna Abbiati explains, "This theme is important if we want to talk about peace. This is the scenario: in secularized society often signs of religion are banned in working places, religious symbols hidden. In other countries restriction of religion is very high. The Pew Research Center reports that more than 2.2 billion people – nearly a third of the world’s population – live in the 23 countries with increasing government restrictions or social hostilities involving religion."

As I recently wrote in ZENIT, policymakers from the White House, the U.S. State Department, the European Parliament and the United Nations have taken notice of the Pew Research Center’s ongoing study of religious restrictions because it provides a quantitative framework they can use to monitor changes in religious restrictions over time, across the world, in specific geographical regions and in individual countries. Tune in or come join me at the TEDx conference on April 19 to get the Pew Research Center's latest information on religious restrictions and hostilities affecting the world today.